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Author
Topic: Would You, Could You, Be A Generous Cadaver? (Read 3471 times)

I was diagnosed with hep C two years before I was diagnosed with hiv - and one of the things that upset me was the fact that I could no longer be an organ or blood donor. When I was still living in the US, I had the donor box checked on my driver's license and only a few months previous to my hcv diagnosis I had been looking into how to get a donor card here in the IOM/UK.

But now it seems that those of us who would like parts of our bodies to go on helping the living after we're gone still have that chance.

And what's more is that we don't even have to die in order to help!

Tim Horn has recently published an article detailing just how it can be done.

A little known group is, in fact, interested in my body, or at least parts of it. It is the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI), a nonprofit scientific organization based in Philadelphia that has made available more than 300,000 human samples that would have been otherwise trashed, incinerated or stored in formaldehyde on a dusty shelf. Roughly 5,000 scientists have made use of these samples in their research.

The organization accepts fluids, tissues and organs—“human biomaterials,” in NDRI parlance—from HIV-positive people, and it is actively seeking and welcoming donors, both living and dead, with the virus.

(The above is just a short excerpt - click on A Piece of Me to read the entire article.)

When I was reading the first few paragraphs I thought I wouldn't be able to participate, but then I discovered that they also have affiliates in Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Israel and the United Kingdom.

I will definitely be getting in touch with them so I can be put in contact with their affiliate in the UK. I'm actually very excited about this - I was always very much pro-organ donation and felt bad that due to both hcv and hiv, I was excluded from helping others in this way.

And speaking of hcv, they're also accepting donations from people with hcv - our livers are very much in demand, apparently.

I hope everyone reads the entire article (linked to it above) and if you're interested like I am, get in touch. What a wonderful way to help others!

Discuss, please. I'd be very much interested in hearing what everyone else thinks about this opportunity.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I getting my donor package in about a week, I called and signed up what the heck, they ask me if I had AIDS, and how long I've been on Meds, so I told them 25yrs this JUNE 2012, they were very interested

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"it's so nice to be insane, cause no-one ask you to explain" Helen Reddy cc 1974

Thank you contacting the National Disease Research Interchange on Friday April 13, 2012 regarding becoming a private donor.

In this email, you will find basic information on NDRI, on how the donation process works, and brochures with examples of the type of research our partners are conducting. In addition, there are two consent forms for you to fill out: Consent for Donation of Anatomical Gifts from Living/Surgical Donors Form and Consent for Donation of Anatomical Gifts. For each organ system, “yes” or “no” must be individually circled on the consent forms.

This letter also comes with two accompanying forms- an NDRI General Medical Questionnaire and an NDRI Supplemental HIV Questionnaire, which requests more detail on your HIV. The information provided via these forms is provided to our research partners so that they have a better understanding of the tissues and the donors that they came from. Of note, the information is transferred into an anonymous database so that no identifying information will be provided to the researchers.

Please review the packet and complete all of the forms as thoroughly as you are able to. The results of laboratory tests and imaging studies is very much appreciated, if not required, so take the time to get the information from your medical providers. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email us directly.

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"it's so nice to be insane, cause no-one ask you to explain" Helen Reddy cc 1974

thnx for the info ///talked with them and they are sending a packet... I have already bought a "cremation" for final action.... so intend to opt for the "full donation" ..... better to have someone use whats left for a good research study than for fertilizer....

I was diagnosed with hep C two years before I was diagnosed with hiv - and one of the things that upset me was the fact that I could no longer be an organ or blood donor.

Ann, I couldn't agree more. Among all the bereavements which attended being diagnosed HIV+, including the permanent loss of many of the people I had counted as friends, curiously enough one of the things which hurt most was knowing that I would never be able to donate blood again. The year before I was exposed to infection I had reached the milestone of 50 donations (the National Blood Service send you a little pin to commemorate the event: I still have it). Being a blood donor was a big thing for me back in the day, and I was proud to have been able to give blood so many times. Then this happened, and now I can't. I miss it a great deal.

I will certainly be checking out the contact you gave: if any part of my worthless hide can go towards helping another human being, they can have it willingly.

This thread made me realize that my driver's license still has me listed as a donor. Guess I'll change that come November when I have to renew.

Will look into this info that you provided, Ann. Thank you for sharing

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"I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else."

It really is a fascinating program. I definitely recommend clicking around NDRI's website; the bospecimen catalog is fascinating to search and the newsletters give really great descriptions of some of the work NDRI has been involved in. It definitely felt good to sign on as a donor -- though, hopefully, not too soon.

I'M CURIOUS... Who pays for the disposal of tissues, organs and body parts, not used by the NDRI in this research? Have the best dayMichael

You can make varying levels of donations. We chose the "unlimited donation", which means when either of us die, we contact them and they make arrangements to remove whatever organs they may need. They use medical professionals to harvest any organs and full view wakes are possible after any donation. Since we are going to be cremated, they will take whatever they need and the rest gets torched. They provide all of the services for removal, so your ultimate costs would remain unchanged.

Prior to my diagnosis with HIV I was signed to be a organ donor . I also was going to donate my body to UAB in Birmingham but they no longer except the remains of people with infectious diseases . I wanted to do this for all the good reasons and because its was a cost effective way of donating my body to science and avoiding having to spend money on a funeral . I will be checking out the link you provided .

I will be buried whole, n science can go get an enema. I will have done with it when I am dead. I want to become the atoms in a tree, not a futile post-doc project for a guy/gal on slave wages with no career prospects.

Having been a visitor at a college anatomy class, we all were given the opportunity to play with tubs of body parts left to science. Not even one of us were students but they let us pick out hearts and lungs of their "generous cadavers". Then we went to lunch... Have the best dayMichael

I would like my remains torched while Julie London sings, "Cry Me a River." My ashes taken to the Beverly Center and sprinkled where the International, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Queen (Fabio) stood in an elevator scene from a Woody Allen film, prior to becoming an International Male model.

I watch television and I know that Colonial Penn Life, with Alex Trebec as Spokesperson, offers insurance for final expenses at 35 cents a day, per unit, while your benefits never decline due to age... My AIDS ridden faggot corpse is available for a price Have the best dayMichael(who will settle for a Cat Suit in a Pet Cemetery)

I wouldn't let any of you motherfuckers pick the corn outta my shit, let alone have a piece of my liver.

So good to hear that you're keeping healthy and eating your veggies my dear. As for that liver of yours, I agree in its current bile soaked state it's not worth touching, but given enough cognac I could whip it into a too die for pate that would be the hit of your wake. <HUGS> GROWLER

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“If loving someone is putting them in a straitjacket and kicking them down a flight of stairs, then yes, I have loved a few people.”